Thursday 28 March 2013 05.57 EDT
First published on Thursday 28 March 2013 05.57 EDT

In under six years, 4D Data Centres has gone from being a one-man hosting company to a medium-sized internet service provider and co-location rackspace (computer hosting) supplier. Part of this success lies in the smooth transition from a weekday business to a 24/7 operation.

Open all hoursFor companies that have an international presence or that provide business critical services, there usually comes a time when they ask themselves: "Do we want to go 24/7?"

In reply ask yourself two questions: do we really need to do this, and can we afford it? Moving operations from the normal working week to 24/7 is a big jump in terms of logistics and costs. Fortunately, for cash-strapped small businesses, there are a plethora of companies that can help you give the impression that you're "open all hours".

Staffing optionsCall centres and virtual PAs are a cost-effective method of filtering calls and taking messages outside working hours. They answer the phone using your company name, and more advanced call centres can even follow a pre-defined script to identify the nature and urgency of the call. If you have fewer than 20 support calls during evenings and weekends, this can be an excellent interim solution.

For companies that need to be physically open 24/7, third-party security guards can also act as receptionists. However, the main issue with this is one of liability (both yours and the outsourcing security company's) as the type of work that guards can engage in is usually quite limited. For example, you wouldn't want an untrained security guard rebooting a piece of technical equipment when they may not know the difference between a server and a firewall.

Next stepsUsually there is a tipping point at which the cost of switching from outsourced staff to an in-house team is relatively negligible, but the operational benefits are quite high. It's at this point that you need to look at the timing and costs associated with a transition. One major issue is making time to train-up new staff while still paying for outsourced services.

To minimise the amount of time that you're effectively paying double, consider the following:

• Shift schedules: Decide what hours you want your new team to work – there are lots of different options available, depending on the shift pattern that suits your company and employees. Research the advantages and disadvantages of each type and, if you can, try to find out what kind of schedules your competitors use to give you an insight into an approach that works well in your industry.

• Health and safety: Before settling on a final shift schedule, consider the health and safety aspects of night and weekend working, especially if you're going to have people in the office by themselves. There's useful information on lone workers from the Health and Safety Executive.

• Hiring staff: Working nights and weekends puts a strain on employees' personal lives and can be physically and psychologically draining. People often find that once their circadian (body) rhythms has adapted to night shifts (which usually takes two or three days), getting up in the evening and going to bed in the morning isn't too bad. You therefore don't want to move individuals between day shifts and night shifts too often.Psychologically, night working alone can take its toll, so ideally give the individual interesting work to carry out and offer to rotate them on to a dayshift occasionally.

When recruiting, be honest about these potential pitfalls. In return, new recruits will hopefully be honest with you about how they plan to cope with working irregular hours and are more likely to stay the course.Once you have picked your new shift workers, it is important to provide them with concise, well considered and fully documented training. Good training not only instills confidence in employees (making them happier), but it also means you're likely to avoid big mistakes and midnight phone calls asking for advice.

Managing shift workersContinuous management and incident reporting is essential. Give employees forward notice of new shift schedules to help them balance their personal lives outside work. Spend a few nights with a new recruit, or get them to shadow someone who is experienced before asking them to work alone.

Think about what could go wrong. Make sure employees are aware of potential scenarios and role-play how to deal with them, including who to call and when.

Create an incident report database to track and manage any issues, regardless of size. Small issues have a habit of growing quickly, so over-reporting is to be encouraged.

When problems occur, tell the rest of the team what lessons were learnt, ideally through regular group training sessions, but otherwise through an incident report memo.

Jack Bedell-Pearce is the managing director of 4D Data Centres If you have experience of operating 24/7 he would be interesting in hearing your comments. You can reach him on Twitter at @jackbp_4D.